Tuesday, March 28, 2017

The Mk.VIs in service with the British army were scouts, transports, machine-gun carriers, artillery carriers, mortar carriers and smoke projector carriers. Later on, experience showed that a single model was preferable to six or more, and a larger one was conceived by Vickers and approved in 1935 for mass production as the “Medium Machine Gun Carrier”, “Bren Gun Carrier”, “Scout Carrier”, and “Cavalry Carrier”.

Compared to the previous Carden-Loyd Mk.VI tankettes, they were enlarged, with the crew now at the front, driver and machine-gunner, and a large open gallery with a rounded end for all kind of loads. Up to five infantrymen or a gun crew could be deployed quickly.
The suspension was a mix of the standard Vickers type and Hortsmann springs. Production was assumed by Aveling and Porter, Bedford Vehicles (British Ford), Morris, the Sentinel Wagon Works, and Thornycroft. But the real production of the definitive standard “Universal Carrier” and first deliveries (Mk.II) came in 1940, just in time for the campaign of France.

The Out Rim Coalition has a very small population where
military service is required for all citizens from age 20 to
55. Military training classes begin in school at age 16 but
actual induction to one of the services isn't till after the
20th birthday. Then the person is inducted to the service
he or she has shown the most aptitude for. They then
serve full time for two years in that service then in the
Home Guard if not selected for the ORC Naval infantry.
Personal can of course opt to reenlist and serve up to
30 years if they wish, there is no age limit for senior
officers.

The Out Rim Coalition Space Navy is the senior service
in the Coalition, and as such gets the lion's share of
funding from the government.

Attached to the Out Rim Coalition Fleet are the Marines
which number only four regiments worth of personal
about 3200 in total this includes training and
administration personal. In most flotillas there is usually
only a reinforced infantry platoon heavily supported by
armor and attached ORNI.

Attached to the Out Rim Coalition Marines are four
squads of ORC Naval infantry ( Arc Fleet Rifle Company )
these are basically reservists fresh out of required military
tour that can be assigned to the fleet for six months to a
year. After completion of with the fleet they go into
Home Guard till age 55.

Sunday, March 26, 2017

This is a conversion from the Berserker novel series from Fred Saberhagen. It is very powerful and should be treated with extreme care

The machine was a vast self contained fortress, set countless millennia ago by its unknown makers to destroy a particular enemy wherever it found it. Together with its brothers the machine had gotten good at its job, and had dealt severe blows to the enemy, yet somehow its adversary always appeared somewhere else, sometimes even before the last purging was completely finished.

Forever fighting, there was never quite enough time for it to repair all the damage done in the last battle, and still its enemy grew more numerous. If the machine had been alive it might have despaired, but despite being intelligent and self aware it was not alive. All it knew was its job, that last great command, ordered by its makers:

DESTROY ALL LIFE.

It followed that command wherever it went, searching galaxies for any trace of its ancient enemy, life.

The first people in the three galaxies to meet it and live to tell the tale were a group of human mercenaries. The name they gave the machine and its brethren was so apt that this is the name adapted by all races. Men called it "Berserker".

Berserker machines are hundreds of thousands of years old war machines build to be last ditch weapons in some unknown interstellar war. Like so many of such weapons they did their job too well, destroying both their makers enemies, as well as their makers. Each berserker is a fully self-contained warship, bristling with weapons of mass destruction. They can range in size from fighters to moon sized, but the typical berserker is a rough spheroid 30 miles in diameter (May have any shape, but a sphere has the best ratio of volume to outer surface, and the berserkers are nothing if not efficient). This is the kind of machine described here. Even if it is a "normal" berserker, it has the firepower to annihilate entire fleets, and can pound the surface of a planet into a cloud of glowing dust and steam miles deep in a couple of days. It has the ability to repair itself, and learn from its encounters. It will never forget its ultimate target, the annihilation of all life. It is not fighting a war for territory or wealth, it is supremely indifferent to such matters. Any kind of life it encounters it will attempt to stamp out, be it Kreeghor, Humans, Splurgoth, plants, or bacteria.

It is unpredictable in its strategies: It can attack a group of six planets, only to leave the last one alone and attack a target hundreds of light-years away, and return years later to finish the job it had left (It is believed that the berserkers strategies are dictated by the patterns of dying atoms in a large block of radioactive material, making them truly random. Once it attacks a target it will seldom give up though).

For the main energy battery, the Berserker has thirty energy clusters. Each cluster consists of six heavy grasers, six medium graser mounts, and four heavy mass driver mounts. These are protected by the defensive shield over their sector, but also have six point defense lasers, six point defense rail guns, and four mini missile launchers. The Berserker has eighteen missile clusters as well. Each missile battery cluster has four cruise missile batteries and eight long range missile batteries. They have the identical point defense weaponry to the energy clusters. The Berserker also has the same number of point defense weaponry protecting each of the hanger bays. The point defense weaponry work in concert and are designed to protect the whole Machine from all attacks not just the individual cluster or bay that they are located at. As its most powerful weapons it has, in three of the energy clusters, huge Antimatter cannons. these weapons are mostly used against very large targets, and especially for planetary bombardment.

Because of the enormous volume of the Berserker, it has a huge amount of space available for use. Most of this space is taken up with power plants, drives, factories and stores for raw material and munitions. The Berserker is a maze of unprecedented proportions, and through its myriads of airless! corridors, thousands of drones and combat robots move. (GM, go for the wilder things that ARCHIE dreams up, and other weird looking machines. Whatever, they should be BAD news!) The remaining space is taken up by bays, twelve in total, contain between them more fighters than four CAF Packmaster class carriers have. (Treat various fighters as their CAF/Kreeghor equivalent, without a pilot, Piloted by a AI wich flies it at 98%, has full attacks and +3 to strike and +2 to dodge.) All of these machines are in constant contact with the Berserker though. They are almost parts of it. If the Berserkers AI is destroyed, the drones have no bonuses whatsoever, but they WILL keep on going!

It is not certain how a Berserker will react to a species as the Machine People. If they do not take a active affair in the fight against it, it might not see them as true life, and spare them. A Berserker will readily accept help from "Good life" e.g. persons or people who are willing to help it destroy all life. Various death cults may see the Berserker as their ultimate god, and decide to help it, in the form of information and supplies! Their reward is obvious off course, but welcome.

It should once again be stressed that a Berserker will see ANY life as something to be ultimately wiped out. The only way to stop one is to destroy it, it will NOT listen to reason.

As described before, this is a average berserker, in good working order. Some berserkers will be much larger, and/or different looking with different weapons altogether. Some may have terrible damage (All berserkers hulls will look as if it has been through incredible battles) and operate at less than 30 % of their original capabilities, perhaps even unable to repair themselves any more. Whatever the case, a Berserker will, even when debilitated, be a machine of death and destruction. If used at all in a campaign, it should be with a great deal of consideration, as they may be very unbalancing to gameplay. Usually one will do the trick, only seldom will one see more than one Berserker at the same place.

This design uses modified starship speed and ranges. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World for more details.

Notes:[1] Instead of having variable shields, the Berserker has six shields, one for each side. Each shield regenerates at the rate of 5% (20,000 MDC) per melee. Depleting the shield in that sector means that further strikes can hit the sector underneath. Gravity based weapons do only half damage to these shields. Each missile/energy cluster and bay also has a seperate smaller forcefield protecting it. These fiels switch on when the main field is destroyed. They do NOT regenerate, but must be completely depleted, upon which it takes 2D6 rounds to fully restore it.[2] In reality this is how much damage needs to be done to hit the AI at the center of the berserker. If the AI is destroyed, the Berserker is no longer capable of spaceflight, and all weapons are at their local AI control (-2 to strike), and there is no sensor data flow and coordination any more (-20% to detect), and all weapons only have half attacks.Damage repair is no longer carried out. If an attack is attempting to penetrate directly to the central AI, the damage is also applied on the main body of the Berserker.(The central AI is the thinking part of the Berserker, without it it becomes a mass of automated reflexes.) [3] Depleting the MDC of the main body will completely destroy the Berserker.[4] This is the damage needed to be done to actually hit one of the gravity drive generators throught he hull. There is one under each screen section of the Berserker. Destroying a drive means that sublight acceleration is reduced by 0.1 percent of light. The Gravitonic Drive system for FTL flight is dispersed through the entire Berserker, and for each 3 Million MDC done to the main body, treat as losing 1 lightyear per hour in speed.

Speed:Driving on the ground: Not Possible Sublight: Has a special sublight engine that allows the ship to travel up to 60 percent of the speed of light. Star Ship can accelerate/decelerate at the rate of 0.6 percent of light per melee.Atmospheric Propulsion:Not possible, if it enters a atmosphere it wil crash.Star Drive: Gravitonic drive; maximum speed: 9 light years per hour.Range: Unlimited.

Statistical Data:Length: Approximately 30 miles (48.2 km)Height: Approximately 30 miles (48.2 km)Width: Approximately 30 miles (48.2 km)Mass/Weight: Approximately 8.3 trillion tons (7.5 trillion Metric tons)Power System: 12 large Anti matter reactors. nominal life span is 100 years, but can manufacture own fuel. (effectively unlimited therefore)Cargo: Cargo holds are scattered about the Berserker that allow for the storage of up to 28 billion tons of Cargo in addition to standard compliment of supplies and ammunition.Market Cost: Not for sale, never has been, never wil be.

WEAPON SYSTEMS:

Antimatter cannons (3): Mounted on in the skinsurface of the berserker are thirty weapons clusters. In three of these clusters are huge Antimatter cannons. Each of these weapons works by accelerating a dense stream of frozen Antihydrogen to near light speed. These weapons are very cumbersome, and can only be used against targets that are cruiser sized or larger. They are relatively slow firing, but they do enormous damage to planetary targets due to the immense amount of radiation and the huge shockwaves that are created when the antimatter is converted into energy upon contact with the planet.All of these weapons are located in the same hmisphere of the Berserker, so they can be targeted against one target. Each weapon has a arc of fire of 60 degrees.Range: 50,000 miles (80,450 km)in space and 50 miles (80.5 km) in an atmosphereMega Damage: 3D6x100,000 to starships and stations. Planetary targets: 1D4x1,000,000 MDC at ground zero (1 mile, 1.6 km radius), 2D4x100.000 in a 9.3 mile (15 km) radius, 1D6x10,000 in a 18.6 mile (30 km) radius, 2D4x1,000 in a 37.3 mile (60km)radius, and 1D4x100 in a 55.9 mile (90 km) radius.Rate of fire: Once per every three rounds. Payload: Effectively Unlimited.Heavy Grazer mounts (180): six 120 cm grazer cannons are in each battery (180 guns total). Each battery can fire at six different targets or combine all attacks in a devastating blast that will take out most ships. By firing combined blasts, they can core a planetoid with a few shots. The weapon mounts have about a 25% increase in both range and damage over standard laser cannons of the same size. Each graser sits in a turret that can rotate 360 and has a 180 arc of fire. They cannot be used faster than the speed of light. Weapon has standard penalties to hit fighters and small targets for a large gun.Mega-Damage: 4D6x1,000 for a single blast, or 6D6x4,000 for a combined blast (all guns in the battery engaging the same target). Effective Range: 160,000 miles (254,700 km) in space and 160 miles (255 km) in an atmosphere.Rate of Fire: Each cannon can fire up to two times per melee round (Berserker has 180 cannons so ship can fire a total of 360 single shots or 60 combined blasts from the main Grasers)Payload: Effectively unlimited.30 cm Heavy Grazer Cannons (180): Grazer cannons use focused gamma radiation and are very powerful. The weapon mounts have about a 25% increase in both range and damage over standard laser cannons of the same size. These mounts are slightly less powerful than the main battery but are quite powerful and any ship caught in the cannons fire will regret the situation very quickly. Like the main battery, these cannons are capable of destroying frigates in one hit or quickly crippling heavier vessels. The Weapons can rotate 360 dgrees and has a arc of 180 degrees. Weapon has standard penalties to hit fighters and small targets for a large starship weaponry.Range: 125,000 miles (201,000 km) in space and 125 miles (201 km) in an atmosphere.Mega Damage: 2D4x1000 MDC each and both can be combined for a total of 4D4x1000. Rate of fire: Maximum of Two (2) times per melee per cannon.Payload: Effectively Unlimited.20 cm Heavy Mass Drivers(120): The cannons fire a single large bolt on high tensile strength MDC material at the target. The projectile is not explosive but has several tons of mass. Each mass driver is mounted in a special turrets that are partially recessed into the ships hull. The turrets have a limited firing. Each has a 120 degree arc of fire. The weapon has standard penalties to hit small targets like missiles and starfighters. These projectiles can be used against unmoving targets beyond the weapons normal range when used in space but suffers the same penalties that normal missiles do. Range: 10,000 miles (16,100 km), range is 10 miles (16.1 km) in an atmosphereMega Damage: 2D6x100+200 MDC each (optional rule is that cannon gets a critical on a natural 18, 19, or 20 due to its high penetration). Rate of fire: Maximum of four per melee.Payload: 200 projectiles for each mass driver (24,000 total).Point Defense Rail Guns (360): The Berserker has six point defense rail guns mounted in each weapon cluster and around each hanger bay. They are directed for defense of the whole Berserker, not just the cluster they are mounted in. Unlike most of the rail guns used on Phase World Starships, these are standard electromagnetic rail guns. They are used as an anti-Starfighter and missile weapon and against targets that are impervious to energy. Each Rail Gun is in a Turret that can rotate 360 and has a 180 arc of fire. Projectiles come out of launchers at close to the speed of light. Cannon uses a 18 mm density enhanced Nickel/Iron projectiles.Range: 16 miles (26 km) through atmosphere and 800 miles (1,290 km) in space. Mega-Damage: 80 round burst does 2D6x10 M.D.Rate of Fire: Automated, 4 bursts per round.Payload: 16,000 Rounds (200 Bursts) each cannon.Point Defense Lasers in Double Mounts (360): The Berserker has six point defense laser cannons mounted in each weapon cluster and around each hanger bay. They are directed for defense of the whole Berserker, not just the cluster they are mounted in. Used as an anti-Starfighter and missile weapon. Each laser turret can rotate 360 and has a 180 arc of fire.Range: 2.5 miles (4 km) miles through atmosphere and 250 miles (40.2 km) in space.Mega-Damage: 2D6x10 M.D.Rate of Fire: Automated, 4 shots per round.Payload: Effectively UnlimitedCruise Missile Batteries (72): The Fortress has four cruise missile batteries in each missile battery cluster. Missile has a top speed of Mach 25 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 10% of light per turn (far faster than any starship). Since star ships will no longer engage at rock throwing distances, whether weapons can be shot down is calculated from the speed of target, launching starship, and missile. When drive goes dead, missile will still cruise unless preset to self destruct or receives a destruct code but has very low odds of hitting star ships (Great for hitting bases and planets because target does not move and missile when dead at -25% to detect.) See Modified starship rules for more details, Cruise missiles have minuses to hit small targets but are all considered smart missiles. Batteries can launch on multiple targets each. Batteries have a lower number of actual launchers than the standard phase world cruise missile batteries and each launcher is slightly larger in size.Range: Missile range is 8000 miles (12,875 km) in an atmosphere and 4,000,000 miles (6,437,376 km/ 21.5 light seconds) in space Mega-Damage & Properties: See Phase World Missiles (See Phase World Missiles - Anti-Matter does 4D6x100 MDC).Rate of fire: One at a time or in volleys of 2, 8, 16, or 24 per launcher, per melee round, for a maximum of 1728 missiles per melee. Launchers are reloaded on the same melee and can be fired again on the nextPayload: 1728 total, 24 cruise missiles per battery. Berserker has 20 reload of missiles (36,288 cruise missiles total) for each launcher.Long Range Missile Batteries (144): The Fortress has eight long range missile launchers in each missile battery cluster. Missile has a top speed of Mach 20 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 8% of light per turn (faster than any starship). Since star ships will no longer engage at rock throwing distances, whether weapons can be shot down is calculated from the speed of target, launcher, and missile. When drive goes dead, missile will still cruise unless set to self destruct but has very low odds of hitting star ships (Great for hitting bases and planets because target does not move and missile when dead at -25% to detect.) Long range missiles do not have minuses to hit small targets unlike cruise missiles and are all considered smart missiles. Batteries can launch on multiple targets each. Batteries have a lower number of actual launchers than the modern CAF long range missile batteries and each launcher is slightly larger in size.Range: Missile range is 3400 miles (5470 km) in an atmosphere and 1,800,000 miles (2,89700 km/9.7 light seconds) in space.Mega-Damage & Properties: See Phase World Missiles (See Phase World Missiles - Fusion does 2D4x100 MDC).Rate of fire: One at a time or in volleys of 2, 8, 16, or 24 per launcher, per melee attack.Payload: 230,400 total, 1200 long range missiles per battery.Mini-Missile launchers (264): The Asteroid fortress has four point defense mini missile launchers mounted in each weapon cluster and around each hanger bay. They are directed for defense of the whole fortress not just the cluster they are mounted in. These are missile turrets used for point defense against enemy fighters and missiles. Missile has a top speed of Mach 10 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 2% of light per turn (slightly faster than any starship except if it is exceeding it maximum safe acceleration).Mega-Damage: varies with mini-missile type (See Phase World Missiles).Range: Missile range is 2 miles (3.2 km) in an atmosphere and 100 miles (161 km) in spaceRate of fire: Can fire missiles one at a time or in volleys of 4 or 8 missilesPayload: 128 per launcher for a total of 33,792 mini-missiles. Cargo hold has an additional 640 mini-missile for each launcher (168,960). Reloading launchers from cargo hold takes 1D6 minutes.Special Equipment:The Berserker has, in order to be a fully self sufficient warmachine, some special equipment onboard:

Munitions and arms Factory: Using raw material and material scavenged from destroyed enemies, the Berserker can fabricate new munitions for its weapons. Treat as fabricating 720 cruise missiles per day, 1440 LRM`s per day, and 2560 minimissiles per day. It can also manufacture 1000 massdriver projectiles, and 80,000 railgun projectiles per day. Also it can repair or build anew, up to 200 fighters or warmachines of various sizes per day.This is only possible when the berserker is not engaged in battle, and can scour a starsystem unhindered for supplies and raw materials.Self repair System: The Berserker has tens of thousands of small repair drones, wich wil repair any damage done to the berserker, first by using raw material available on the berserker, and secondly by scavenging material from around the system. Treat as capable of repairing 30,000 MDC per hour when using available raw material, and repairing 6,000 MDC per hour when scavenging. When repairing complicated systems such as weapons or drives, there is a 1 % probability that the drones cannot repair the system. It is so far damaged that it is basically scrapped, and is lost forever.Mining gear: The berserker has a large amount of mining gear available for replenishing it stocks of raw material. The berserker usually carries at least 500,000 MDC worth of raw armor plating with it. replenishment of stocks should be up to the GM. Remember, mining operations and self repair can cost a lot of time, time wich the Berserker often does not have!Laboratoria Each berserker has several laboratoria aboard itself, where it is capable of analyzing pieces of captured equipment a enemy has used against it. In time, these technologies may become a part of the Berserker! Sensors: The Berserker has all the normal sensors that Phase World battleships have, but it is +20 to detect any life in a system, and receives no penalties to detect it.Antimatter plant: The Berserker can actually manufacture its own Antimatter for its drive system and weapons! In order to do so, it has to get close a star (1 light minute or less!) and then drains off part of the photosphere of the star directly. Most of this power is used to convert a small amount of the matter in the photosphere into antimatter, wich the Berserker then stores. The Berserker can replenish its ENTIRE supply of antimatter in 6 months in this way, but it does nothing else while it is doing so, and is very vulnerable to attack!Sentient Computer: The Berserker should be considered a powerful artificial intelligence in terms of Rifts. It can pilot itself at 98%, has full attacks for all weapons, and has +5 to strike, and +3 to initiative. It can be considered to have a IQ of 30, and can learn any skill it needs at up to 95 % ability if it has to do with warfare, and any other.

Thursday, March 23, 2017

The last few weeks have been pretty much all spent getting order dispatches back up to date, but I've just posted a brief news update on the store - with information about PRE-ORDERS FOR SALUTE (which is now less than a month away….).

Monday, March 20, 2017

The very roots of the Neubaufahrzeug (literally: “New Construction Vehicle”) are connected to the arrival of Hitler as the new head of state, and the desire to have, as quickly as possible, a suitable heavy tank, both for the army needs and for propaganda purposes. It had to be a symbol of the renewal of the German Army and was conceived in quite a hurry. Its inspirations can be traced back to the British multi-turreted prototype Vickers A1E1 Independent, which also inspired the the Soviet T-28 and T-35. The former was under intense scrutiny when the Reichswehr decided, in 1926, to give a contract to Rheinmetall-Borsig, MAN, Daimler-Benz and Krupp for the Reichswehr Großtraktor.

New product line announcement: Cthulhuglue, you need never worry about parts falling off your models ever again the pat and pended tentacle action automatically grabs the offending part pullingit back into position .

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

The TAM or Tanque Argentino Mediano (Argentinean medium tank) is considered a light tank. In early 1970s a contract was awarded to German Thyssen-Henschel to develop a 30-tonne tank, armed with a 105-mm gun and an infantry fighting vehicle (VCTP) with as much common components as possible. Production commenced in 1976 in Argentina. Out of 500 TAMs and VCTPs initially planned only 256 tanks and 94 IFVs were built due to budget cuts. As of 2016 a total of 218 TAM tanks remain in service with Argentina.

The Evil Empire on the Brazos(BEE) chronicles the on goingwars (games) and the diplomaticefforts (Posts/GNN Reports) ofall the known nations (wargamecollections) in my little area of thegalaxy.My goal is to both entertain

and inform those new to art ofminiature wargaming, and have afew laughs with it. This Blog isopen to all and also welcomescomment from all and I hopethat many will come to join inthe madness.....)